


Dana

by Nobodu



Series: 2018 Stories [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, but other than klance, they're just mentioned, this is very self indulgant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-05 17:57:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17329739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nobodu/pseuds/Nobodu
Summary: Christmas Gift 2018





	Dana

 

_ 🐋oh if your beauty was translated to words, it would fill up all the world’s libraries _

  
  
  


the first time they meet goes like this: keith is taking pictures of the ocean and the sunset, but mainly the ocean until he by accidentally takes a picture of a tail.

he squints at the photo and focuses the camera to the waters again before a blur appears.

he looks up and outside the small frame of his camera and at a boy with tan skin and blue eyes that remind him of what he imagines the bottom of the ocean to look like. 

and then the world fades to nothingness

  
  


🌊🌊🌊

  
  


“shiro! when are we going to arrive at the arus port?” keith asks their captain who shrugs.

“soon, i hope. pidge, what’s the forecast?”

“the winds aren’t the best, but it shouldn’t affect the ship” the girl shouts from her room which she forces them to call office.

an arm is wrapped around him and he already knows who it is before he even turns to look. “that’s great! the goop’s certainly not the best meal i’ve had in a while.” lance says.

keith grins, thinking about the weird goop they’d been eating for a while. 

“well, it’s the best for long distance trips because they-” shiro begins

“ never spoil, and are simple and small to package.” the rest of the team, finish for him.

hunk shouts from the crow’s nest and the weight on his shoulder is suddenly gone as lance goes up to check what his best friend said. “oh! i can see it! arus!~”

“they’re so excited.” shiro chuckles.

“we’re coming home, baby!” lance shouts to the tiny speck of land visible from where they were.

“so am i.” keith says, running up to join hunk and lance.

  
  
  
  
  


🌊🌊🌊

  
  
  


he wakes up and forgets his dream

his first thought is: “why didn’t i take a picture of that boy.” 

his second is “beautiful”.

the cave he wakes up in is the night sky. there are bright stones that hang in from the dark ceiling, and the water is glowing faintly, showing a teal light. it’s not cold inside the cave, either. rather, it’s warm and calming inside. 

he sits up properly and then stares at his skin, covered with glow in the dark dust from the soft material he was sleeping on.

“am i dreaming or dead?” he asks something -he’s not quite sure what- but there’s no response.

and suddenly there is, when there’s a swish of a fin, and the tan skinned boy lifts himself up to sit next to keith.

there’s a small space in between the two and it should be awkward, him and a merman, a merman and him

 

and yet there’s no awkwardness in silence as they sit, admiring the beauty of cave. 

 

🌊🌊🌊

 

“so, why am i here?” he asks over their shared meal of cooked seaweed and shrimp, which, taste amazing and he doesn’t really understand how.

the boy opens his mouth and a language that feels like it’s already a song is spoken, but keith doesn’t understand a word, any beautiful word.

but when the boy’s done talking singing talking, he gestures for keith to get on his back, and keith should be wary, should be more careful, but he lets his arms rest over the boy’s shoulders and then they go under the water for a short second

 

but then they go back up and the boy, god keith wish he knew his name, gives him a piece of green thing. it’s thin and flat, roughly the side of a small post it. Keith stares at him in confusion, until the boy mimes biting it

“chew?” he asks, and the boy shakes his head.

“swallow?” he asks, wincing, but the boy shakes his head again.

“oh, you want me to hold it in my mouth?” and this time he gets a nod.

  
  


🌊🌊🌊

  
  
  


so, apparently, keith finds out before holding his breath for so long he thinks he might even just die that way instead of drowning, the green stick allows him to breathe in the water. 

it seems too magical to question the science of it, so he doesn’t. the air tastes salty but it’s better than dying, and he keeps inhaling watery-air? airy-water? as the merman swims through the water. 

it’s weird.

but good weird, like when he mistakenly takes a photo of something beautiful.

the fin, he supposes, in his photo, is what he’s thinking of.

and in the end, he supposes, that means he thinks the boy is the good weird, which kind of cancels out the whole analogy.

he was never the best with words.

  
  


🌊🌊🌊

  
  
  


“my name is keith.” he says before he bites into his sandwich. the boy next to him swishing his tail in the water.

“nah-me l-lance.” the boy whispers out, and keith decides it isn’t just the language that flows like a song, it’s the way the boy speaks.

“lance?” he asks, “that’s your name?”

the boy nods and repeats his name.

  
  
  


they’re holding hands and he doesn’t understand how their fingers fit so perfectly.

  
  


🌊🌊🌊

  
  


lance is making a flower crown and keith watches as he loops the stems through each other. 

“i didn’t know you knew how to make flower crowns.” keith says when lance turns to him.

“my mom taught me, a long time ago.” it’s quiet for a moment. he knows that lance and hunk are different from the rest of them; it’s why they bonded so fast. they were forcefully pulled out of the comfort of their families and into this business, unlike the others, who never really had a concept of family and happiness before this.

“do you want one?” lance says, breaking them out of the silence.

“oh, um, sure.”

  
  
  


shiro doesn’t pry when he notices the matching flower crowns on their head.

coran totally does.

  
  
  


🌊🌊🌊

  
  
  
  


_ there was a storm coming. _ lance writes

“so, you decided to just, knock me out and take me somewhere way out?” keith asks, amused.

the merman pouts.  _ it seemed like the best course of action at the time. _

“you could’ve warned me?” keith replies, unconvinced.

_ i said _ , it’s scratched out, _ wrote: at the time. _

keith laughs and pets the boy’s head, who leans into his touch. 

and he begins wishing, wishing, wishing that they didn’t just have to meet where the water meets the land.

  
  


 

🌊🌊🌊

 

 

 

their first kiss is sweet and short, under the moonlight at the jagged rocks by the ocean. 

he’s not quite sure who initiated the kiss but he knows that it’s what he’s wanted for a while

 

for forever, his heart tells him, never forgetting what the mind lost

 

 

 

🌊🌊🌊

 

 

 

“where’s your boyfriend?” allura asks as he enters the Castle of Lions.

he looks at her in confusion.

“who? when did i get a boyfriend?” he asks, utterly lost.

she sighs, “lance? duh, you’ve been dating for a few months?”

“no? we’re not dating?” he replies and allura sighs again.

“you guys go out every weekend and do your own personal thing, watch movies together exclusively at least every three days. i’ve seen you guys hold hands and kiss.”

keith frowns. “but shiro does that with curtis too!”

“keith, shiro and curtis are dating. shiro’s been planning to propose for a while now.”

“w-holy shit we’re dating.”

allura gives him a look and one last sigh, muttering as she left. “i can’t believe these two idiots, how have they not realiz-”   
  


  
  


🌊🌊🌊

 

 

  
  


the sea witch, who introduces himself as coran gives them a sad look as they arrive in the underwater cave. inside, there’s breathable oxygen and keith doesn’t understand why but the sea witch is a human.

“so fate truly is amazing” he whispers underneath his breath as he leads them into smaller room. 

“now then, what is your wish?” he asks them, and their answers are the same in wording and in breathe.

 

_ lance to be human _

 

 

 

🌊🌊🌊

  
  


 

 

what they don’t know:

 

lance falling, slipping, dying. keith holding his hand, begging him not to go. the exchange keith makes for lance’s life.

_ anything for him. everything for him _

coran crying as he takes keith’s life and years and love into lance’s body, turning the human into something in between a human and a siren. someone that feels but also someone who sings to touch the hearts of all men that listen.

(and if you listen close enough, it’s a song about a ship, about sacrifice. but mostly, it’s a song about love and the power it has.)

  
  
  


🌊🌊🌊

  
  
  


the rule is that, coran explains, you must kiss your true love within fifteen days of you becoming human. his smile is a laugh as lance and keith grin at each other.

so coran gives lance a small cup of glowing green liquid, which is, of course, suspicious, but lance later tells him that it tastes like a blueberry smoothie. lance glows and his tail turns into legs from the hip downward, sun-kissed skin appearing as they all watch.

 

 

 

🌊🌊🌊

  
  
  


it’s the second day of lance with legs, and he’s wobbling around, shaky and uncomfortable. they’re sitting down again, and lance tries to figure how to criss-cross apple sauce.

“it’s okay, you don’t have to sit like that.” keith says, but lance shakes his head.

“n-no.” the language that lance used to speak is apparently exclusive to mermen, and now he’s learning how to speak english, which is a bit unfortunate, since keith knows how hard it is to learn.

“okay.” he replies and waits for him to maneuver his legs into the sitting position.

  
  


 

 

🌊🌊🌊

  
  
  


“keissu! ai leh-urned nu vored!” lance shouts the moment he enters their apartment.

“what is it?” keith asks, smiling.

lance blushes. “m noot leady t-to sai.”

  
  
  


 

🌊🌊🌊

  
  


 

“keith, the words i learned were,  _ i love you. _ ”

he smiles into their kiss, “i love you too.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


_ 🐋and in the vast emptiness of the ocean, you were there by my side and stared at me as if i was the entire universe. _

 

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. this is actually the longest (i think) out of all the gifts, because there was so much more world that i actually could expand on without making this like, a 5k thing.  
> 2\. i imagine the apartment that klance live in is the current version of Castle of Lions and either allura or shiro is the landlord.  
> 3\. this is the only one that managed to stay as uh, fluff? the entire way. i was really, really tempted to make it angsty halfway through and it was SO Difficult omg  
> 4\. the story: keith sacrifices himself for lance and in the next life they find each other.  
> 5\. also disney but dark


End file.
